1. Field of the Invention
The present invention-relates to a remote maintenance apparatus which maintains terminals connected to a network effectively and efficiently, the terminal which is connected to the remote maintenance apparatus, a program recording medium which stores a program for realizing the remote maintenance apparatus, and a program recording medium which stores a program for realizing the terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terminals which are connected to a network are becoming widely used. Against this backdrop, a technique for maintaining the terminals which are connected to a network is needed.
When a user buys a terminal which can be connected to a network, the user installs necessary hardware and necessary software in the terminal such that the terminal performs necessary data processing.
Conventionally, configuration information of the terminal configured in this way is not informed to a vendor of the terminal. Thus, a maintenance worker of the vender obtains the configuration information from the user by a phone call and the like when a failure of the terminal occurs. Then, the worker makes preparation for repairing according to the configuration information and goes to the user so as to repair the terminal.
Thus, conventionally, the maintenance worker finds a cause for the failure from only the configuration information of the terminal at the time of occurring the failure.
In addition, conventionally, when a user decides to install a new software program due to version up of the program, the user browses a list of software programs which is provided by a vendor so that the user selects a software program to be downloaded and installs the software program.
When a maintenance worker decides to install a new software program for recovering from failure of the terminal, the maintenance worker browses a list of software programs which is provided by a vendor so that the maintenance worker selects a software program to be downloaded and installs the software program.
At this time, conventionally, the newly downloaded program is set in an executable state immediately. In addition, conventionally, a workload for maintenance is obtained from work reports of maintenance workers. Then, skill of each maintenance worker or level of each service company is evaluated based on the workload.
However, when the method is adopted in which the maintenance worker makes an inquiry to the user about the configuration information of the failure terminal, there is a problem in that correct configuration information can not be obtained. In addition, there is a problem in that it takes time to obtain the configuration information.
Further, as the conventional technique, when the method is adopted in which a cause of the failure of the terminal is searched only by the configuration information at the time of failure, there is a problem in that the maintenance worker is perplexed with the search of the failure. That is, failures of hardware or software of a terminal is often caused by combination of software programs or combination of software programs and hardware. However, since generation management of the configuration information of the terminal is not performed, a cause of the failure of the terminal is searched only by the configuration information at the time of failure. Thus, the maintenance worker is perplexed with the search of the failure.
Further, since the user or the maintenance worker downloads a software program manually, there is a problem in that a necessary software program for each terminal is not downloaded speedily. That is, when a software program needs to be downloaded for a terminal, the same software program needs to be downloaded for other terminals of the same configuration. However, according to the conventional technique, the software program is not downloaded in other terminals unless each user of the other terminals or the maintenance worker download the software program.
Further, as the conventional technique, when the method is adopted in which the newly downloaded program is set in an executable state immediately, there is a problem in that needs of a user who desires that the newly downloaded program is set in the executable state from a time when the user wants are not satisfied.
In addition, as the conventional technique, when the method is adopted in which skill of each maintenance worker or level of each service company is evaluated based on the workload which is obtained from work reports of maintenance workers, there is a problem in that the evaluation can not be objectively performed and the evaluation becomes burdensome.